It killed me that I couldn't be there on Saturday for opening day. I'll tell that story in a different post.

Season's preparations for me begin in mid-January, and there is a formula of steps to be completed until our first car show of the season, and I always want to be there to see it all come together. I missed it.

In an all-volunteer organization, we all have something to do, and for me, it always begins with the yearly updates of the website that take into account new rule changes, car criteria, property meetings, and a general refresh. I run the business side of E@RTC, so I'm year-round, but January kicks off my work activity.

After fifteen years, we have a formula down, and many of our volunteers have been with us ten years or more, and they work like a well-lubricated machine. We're close to 40 volunteers now and can't take on any more at the moment. Meanwhile, the show continues to grow in status and notoriety over the years.

When Vic and I co-founded, with me alone working full time to get the thing off the ground, we had no idea it would ever turn into something this big. I was shocked we lasted past our first season! We never knew it would gain so much momentum. Back then, we thought everyone would quickly forget about us once the weather got cold, but they came back like majestic migrating birds, and every year was a little bigger and brighter than the year before.

It’s the volunteers that made it for us. It was their joining us and help become something much larger that did it. Without them, no show.

The question now is to think about how best to not just sustain what we do but also leverage our brand strength into drawing more of the best. I'm thinking a lot about LLMs and what that is going to do to automotive. Our online audience has again doubled so far this year, but that should level off to the usual net gain of 25% year over year. What do we do with that?

Meanwhile, cheers to a great season this year everyone! As we love to say every early Saturday morning all season, “It’s time to make the f*cken donuts!”